Kaiju. Since Godzilla first ran rampant, these terrors have destroyed countless onscreen cities. Humanity fights back with bullets, planes, tanks and anything else that goes boom. But what if we fought them on even ground…or ocean? What if Transformers decided to give Godzilla the ‘ol what for?Therein lies Pacific Rim. Just in case the action packed trailers haven’t quite piqued your interest in this grand-slam showdown between monster and machine, here are five reasons why you should watch Warner Bros & Legendary Pictures‘ Pacific Rim.
1 Australi-owned
Although we’re the country down under it seems like we really came out on top. The Australian Jaegar, Striker Eureka, is both the fastest and most deadly robot in the movie and it’s got a Kaiju kill count that out does every other country. This is great because Australia doesn’t often get the spotlight when it comes to movie that involve the entire world being in peril! Where was the Australian superhero in The Avengers? No where to be seen because he wasn’t invited, poor Australia, well poor Australia no more because in Pacific Rim when the going gets tough the tough calls us Aussies. Disregard the actors who played the Aussie pilots, they did their best but I suggest adding subtitles for the next screening because “Bludy ‘ell Mayte” they were a little hard to understand.
2 Dayman: Researcher of the Kaiju
Though the Jeagers steal the show, what with their epic combat and apocalypse cancelling status, everyone needs a little backup. Heading the science team and bringing humour into the ongoing destruction is Charlie Day. Doctor, Kaiju otaku and risk taker, he is more central to the plot than it would originally seem, whether people want him to be or not. Naturally he finds himself in perilous situations and learns that it’s not always sunny in Hong Kong. Paired with a straight man mathematician, this duo proceeds to argue, scream and deal their way to the greatest fictional scientific discoveries of this generation.
3 Fresh Kaiju
Now we all know what happens when a giant creature attacks a city. Buildings are crushed, bullets are deflected, occasionally damsels are carried to the top of the Empire State Building. But what happens afterwards? The credits don’t always roll when the monster goes down. The results are messy to say the least. The colossal remains are procured by black market dealers, who wheel and deal “miracle cures” and sell chunks of Kaiju to the highest bidder. A roaring trade, crews are on the scene fast and in a few days the Kaiju is in pieces. Areas decide to adopt a skeleton decor once they realise its difficult to move a 50 tonne femur off of the street. Religions spawn, viewing the Kaiju as God’s anger at poor old planet Earth. Others adopt a less…Revelationy approach and instead make quirky game shows and a line of action figures. Who said the results had to be all bad? Ok…most of it is bad.
4 Robots and Monsters
Monsters are cool. Robots are cool. That’s about it actually…no? You want more? Fine! Monster movies are so incredibly cheesy, to the point where if you invited me over to your house to watch an old Kaiju film I will respectfully decline your offer and follow that was an incredibly disrespectful rant about why old monster movies suck, well, Pacific Rim is for the lactose intolerant because there’s no cheese in this film. It’s straight up action, it’s straight up tensions, it’s straight up to the top of my favourite movies list. there was never a real lull in the movie, whenever the earth was silent it was because there was some sort of fight going on within the characters. Let me also say the monsters were well designed and the actually story, which I’m not going to tell you about, will take you by surprise. Big time.
5 It’s a del Toro
Guillermo Del Toro films are never bad, let’s be entirely honest, and this one is no different. He likes big, he likes crazy and he flippin’ loves monsters! It’s not just that he loves doing these sorts of movies it’s the fact that he’s good at making them that counts and, much like Hellboy did, this movie will make fans extremely happy. He’s somehow brought the epic Kaiju action of yesteryear into the present. He’s a master of the screen and he’s a master of the epic. Simple as that.
Special mention also has to go to the names in Pacific Rim. We’ve got Gipsy Danger, Striker Eureka, Crimson Typhoon and that’s just a few of the Jeager. Kaiju are throwing Knifehead, Raiju and Scunner just to name a few.
